"We can prioritise other things over profits, like artistic integrity and fair treatment."
The publisher of Manor Lords, Hooded Horse, has been at the center of a recent discussion concerning indie developers and the difficulties of early access. Earlier in the week, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender got into a debate with Hinterland CEO Raphael van Lierop, who called Manor Lords a "pretty interesting case study in the pitfalls of early access." While that argument has since been settled, Bender has continued to stress both his and Hooded Horse's support for the devs on their roster.
"Sustainability is something we think about a lot," Bender says in an interview with Rock Paper Shotgun. "But usually, we think about it in relation to developers." In fact, as Hooded Horse is predominantly owned by individuals, with the majority of shares sitting with Bender and his wife, the publisher can be more relaxed when it comes to demanding "endless growth" or relentless updates on profits.
In fact, before Manor Lords released into early access, Bender previously discussed in a LinkedIn post how he tried to help the developer, Greg "Slavic Magic" Styczeń, prepare for harsh criticisms. "I told him that after release, he was going to hear from all sorts of commenters talking about missed opportunities because he failed to grow as fast as they wanted."
Because of this lack of pressure on developers to grow and perform, Bender says that Hooded Horse doesn't "really have any perpetual growth goal. We don't have pressure financially, and we've been lucky enough to work with such great developers and they produce such great games. Even before Manor Lords, we were fully sustainable financially, based on the wonderful games those developers have made."
"So as a consequence, we don't have to worry about sustainability, I think," Bender says. "But we're very focused on what's more important, which is developer sustainability. Because there are [publishing agreements] where the publisher gets all the revenue at first until they recoup their investment, and only then does [the] developer start to get any share. That's very common in the industry. And from the beginning, [we] didn't want to do that—our preferred arrangement is just flat percentage splits."
This approach actually means that Hooded Horse doesn't need every game to be outrageously successful like Manor Lords. But that's nothing new for publishers with diverse portfolios: "One can go a little badly, one can go a little better, the two cancel out there," Bender says.
But the same can't be said for developers. "It might be that if the game does a little worse, and there was some money spent on it, now the publisher gets to take back whatever they put in before the developer gets $1," Bender says. "That could mean developers not getting paid, and certainly not having the cash after release to keep staff around, to avoid layoffs, to continue developing and improving the game, and help it recover from whatever stumble happened at launch."
There's no one formula for supporting a developer and their project, but in Bender's opinion, it's all about living "up to the obligations of what you promised those developers when they trusted their game to you." When it comes to choosing which publishers devs want to go with, the factor that Bender feels is crucial above all else is trust "because [you shouldn't] bank on being the next viral hit."
